School of Arts and Sciences

Intelligence and National Security Faculty Member Speaks at Press Club

Thursday, April 21, 2011

On Wednesday, April 27, 2011, Point Park University Assistant Professor Michael Finnegan, a former FBI agent, joins with Associated Press investigative reporter Adam Goldman to discuss how the federal intelligence community interacts with the media in reporting on terrorists and terrorism.

The public can purchase tickets to the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania luncheon and presentation, “Chasing Terrorists,” at noon at the Engineers Society, 337 Fourth Ave., Downtown.

Point Park students and faculty are invited to a free question and answer program at 9:40 a.m. JVH Auditorium in Thayer Hall on campus.

Finnegan and Goldman will provide details of their relationship that began when the AP reporter started tracking down the story of what happened to Khalid Al-Jawary, convicted of placing powerful car bombs in New York City in 1973, and deported after serving his sentence in U.S. prisons in 2009. Because of the collaboration, the FBI reopened the case against Al-Jawary and considered charging him based on new information.

Goldman wrote a series of articles about Al-Jawary -- the complexity of his subsequent transfers through federal prison and the deportation proceedings surrounding him -- as the government prepared to release him.

Finnegan worked on a team of intelligence agents who found and arrested Al-Jawary, among other cases. Goldman has reported extensively on the CIA and the FBI. A profile of Finnegan appeared in the Spring 2009 issue of The Point, a magazine for alumni and friends of Point Park University.

Finnegan teaches in Point Park's Department of Criminal Justice and Intelligence Studies, which offers bachelor's degrees in criminal justice, forensic science, law enforcement, and intelligence and national security, along with a master's degree in criminal justice administration.